The Reds had stormed to a 17 point lead at half-time and looked set to gain their second win in Europe this season but AEK fought back in the second half and took the win thanks to a free throw from Chris Warren with only 2.1 seconds left on the clock.

Matt Jenning was the star performer for the Reds with 23 points and 10 rebounds while Donta Smith pulled down 18 rebounds.

Hapoel now sit at the bottom of the group with Krasny Volgorad but coach Danny Franco was still positive. He said:

“We must learn from what happened here in Greece. When we go back to Israel, we will look at the mistakes we made and we will try to correct them. The group is open, it’s very early and we can correct many things.”

The Yellows finished the first half trailing by four points then took the lead in the third quarter with a fabulous frame. But a terrible last ten minutes in which they only scored nine points saw them throw away the match.

Devin Smith played well for the visitors with 19 points and 6 rebounds while Taylor Rochestie netted 10 and provided 9 assists, apart from that Maccabi players did not perform well.

Guy Goodes’ side now lie in second to last place with only one win. He said: “We tried to do a full-court press right from the beginning to take Bamberg out of their game. Because they are a team, if you let them come into their rhythm, it’s always tough.

“Our goal was to allow them 72 points, max. And we were close to that target. The last quarter, we made a lot of mistakes. We had some open shots that we didn’t make. We lost the last quarter 9-26. So, that was the game.”

Additionally, Maccabi Rishon LeZion suffered a 68-72 loss at home to BC Enisey. They had the same story as the two other Israelis sides with a good 30 minutes then throwing away the lead in the last quarter to lose the match.